Morgan Beckwith: Southport, CT

The Mystic Ballet Family

Mostly unlike the concerns that occur in a large-scale ballet company, the small contemporary ballet company is often plagued by issues of private life that make their way into the studio space. Goran does not feel like this is a hindrance or a curse, but rather a simple necessity for raising and training young dancers. In the dance world insecurity, low self-esteem, and other self-destructive contributing factors are inevitable and unavoidable for almost every budding young dancer. At the beginning of Goran’s involvement with dance a colleague told him, “Goran, why do you think so many people consider dancer’s to be just past the point of clinically insane?”. That would be because any other member of our society that looks at themselves in the mirror for seven to eight hours a day is bound to have some form psychotic break. If this strained and self-critical environment is reduced to fourteen dancers in a quaint coastal town, working on dances that require intense mental focus and adaptation, emotions and grievances are bound to make their way to the surface.

Goran acknowledges that the practice of adapting young dancers (such as the current Mystic Ballet two members) to such a rigorous artistic process requires an incredible amount of patience and time. He says that he would be capable of lashing out at these dancers and in ten minutes and they would never be able to dance again. But that is something he truly does not want for these young people. Ultimately, he considers his dancers, as the people who devote their time and energy to his mission, to be his family. And with a majority of these individuals coming from countries all over the world, (including Japan, Australia, and Nicaragua) they need a community of more than just circumstance to thrive as artists.

Goran says that if you really care about your dancers as artists and as human beings you have to be receptive to these issues. Not only does the presence of negative energy effect the troubled individual but it affects the entire atmosphere of the company workspace, and only has the potential to bring more negativity. Issues that range from concern about weight, to private family matters have to be dealt with respectably and on a case by case basis.

However, any business that produces their artistic product, live and in the flesh, has to be prepared for immediate crisis. It is not just the long term psychological and social issues that force a small dance company to be flexible. On one occasion Goran had a dancer injured during the first act of a ballet. Without a second thought he took the dancers and re-worked the entire rest of the show. This is not uncommon in live performance work, but it is especially difficult for a small cast of dancers to adapt quickly to these large amounts of intense choreographic material. There is no way to avoid an open and receptive mindset, and especially in a company like this one, it is simply in the job description.

Goran might have created this company to fuel his creative and innovative spirit, but when it comes to the well being of his dancers he views the company as an extension of his own family.